We are looking for a postdoctoral scientist with strong mathematical and data analytical skills, who is interested in applying their skills to working on infectious diseases. The successful candidate will work on the development of models of COVID-19 incorporating exceptionally well recorded demographic, testing and viral sequence data, in order to jointly estimate epidemiological and evolutionary parameters, and inform models of control.

In this position, you will be a member of a substantial team working on COVID-19 modelling, collaborating with Drs. Samantha Lycett (University of Edinburgh), Joseph Hughes (University of Glasgow), Sema Nickbakhsh and Alison Smith-Palmer (both PHS). Using a combination of machine learning, mathematical and simulation-based approaches, and subject to an extension of currently held data agreements, you will analyse COVID-19 data on vaccination rates, cases, severe cases and deaths recorded at fine geographical scale, and tied directly to SARS-CoV-2 viral sequences (https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.08.20248677 ). You will use this exceptional combination of data to estimate the importance of a wide range of risk factors (including distance, population density, vaccination proportion, deprivation, and commuting patterns for different job classes) in determining the rate of spatial spread across the course of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Scotland. Working with a research software engineer, your work will inform the further development of an existing large scale agent-based simulation model (https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.25.20144139) currently being used by PHS to generate medium term projections of COVID-19 cases in order to inform future control policies.

You will have:

Excellent mathematical and simulation modelling skills (e.g with undergraduate training in mathematics, physics, engineering, statistics or informatics)
Familiarity with working with large, multi-variable epidemiological datasets
Willingness to work on health policy-relevant problems, with the possibility of rapid response to immediately relevant questions.
A combination of Independent working and team skills

Interviews will be held the beginning of April.

For informal inquiries, please contact Prof. Rowland Kao: rowland.kao@ed.ac.uk

If invited for interview you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages.

The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Skilled Worker Visa.

About Us
As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.
About the Team
The Roslin Institute is a world-leading centre for animal bioscience research and has a distinctive niche within the UK National Institutes of Bioscience, supported strategically by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Institute moved to a new £60M state-of-the-art building at the Easter Bush Campus in 2011, which is now occupied by > 670 people including ~ 65 Group Leaders and Career Track Fellows, other research and support staff, students and visitors and ~90 staff from Scotland’s Rural College. The Institute has a vibrant programme of postgraduate research, with 176 PhD students registered at the time of writing. Research at the Institute is organised across three research divisions (Genetics & Genomics, Infection & Immunity and Developmental Biology) and three Institute Strategic Programmes (BBSRC funded from 2017-2022) that integrate many disciplines (Blueprints for Healthy Animals, Control of Infectious Diseases and Improving Animal Productivity & Welfare). Crosscutting themes in Epidemiology and Population Health and in Clinical Sciences link research at the Institute to clinical activities in the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and support the research activities of clinical academic staff. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), a joint submission from The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The Roslin Institute and Scotland’s Rural College was ranked 1st by research power (volume x quality) in the category of Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science.

Over £200M has been invested in physical infrastructure at Easter Bush since 2008, including recently in the National Avian Research Facility and the Charnock Bradley Building, which houses the Roslin Innovation Centre – an incubator space for agritech start-up companies and spin out companies to commercialise the Institute’s intellectual property. Investments continue, as the Institute is a major partner in the new Agri-Tech Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock, which together with the University, funds the construction of a £25 M Large Animal Research and Imaging Facility. The Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health, primed by investment from the Gates Foundation and Department for International Development, aims to unlock the genetic potential of farmed animals by dissecting genotype-by-environment interactions to sustainably improve animal productivity in low- and middle-income countries.

The Institute’s income exceeds £30M p.a., around 50% of which derives from the BBSRC via strategic and competitive funding. Our focus on improving farming systems, animal productivity and welfare, and the control of animal and zoonotic diseases is key to delivery of the BBSRC’s strategic priorities for Agriculture & Food Security, Veterinary Vaccinology and Bioscience for Health. This research is expedited by extensive interactions with industry, including via ongoing platform agreements with major animal breeding and pharmaceutical companies. The addition of our own £15M equity-funded commercialisation vehicle, Roslin Technologies Ltd, will accelerate translation of research at the Institute in the years to come. The Institute holds a prestigious Athena SWAN Gold award in recognition of our commitment to advance the representation of women in science.

Further details of the research conducted at the Institute can be found at https://www.ed.ac.uk/roslin